Groups Seek New Sites for Meetings
The National Business Aviation Assn. had planned to bring several planes on barges down the Mississippi River this November and through a 60-foot door into the massive New Orleans riverfront convention center.
Instead, the business aviation group became among the first of many trade groups and associations to announce this week that they are canceling plans to hold their annual conventions in New Orleans this fall in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s destructive blows.
Instead, they’ll look for a site elsewhere -- if they can find one.
The city’s Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, now being used as a huge relief center for displaced local residents, is one of only a handful of sites nationwide that can handle big events featuring large exhibits and 30,000 or more visitors. And industry experts said most of the others already were heavily booked with big events this fall, the busiest time of the year for conventions.
“We have received calls from about a dozen planners a day, looking into the availability for any meetings now through spring of 2006 -- and even some in 2007,” said Nicky See, a spokeswoman at the Anaheim Convention Center.
It was unclear how many events had been booked at the Morial center this fall. Last year, the city drew 10 million visitors, nearly half of them to 93 conventions at the 1.1-million-square-foot convention center.
Trade groups and other organizations with upcoming shows in New Orleans must decide whether to reschedule, relocate or cancel their events outright. It’s a crucial decision: Conventions typically provide up to half of the annual operating revenue for many trade groups.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists, which was expecting to bring about 30,000 members to New Orleans for its annual meeting starting Oct. 22, has opted for the same course as the business aircraft group -- looking for a new site.
But AARP, the nation’s biggest organization for retired persons, has decided simply to cancel its three-day annual event, which was set to begin Sept. 29 at the Morial center. The group will provide refunds or will follow members’ directions on its website to donate their deposits for relief help in the inundated region.
The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau is trying to set up an office in nearby Baton Rouge by Monday to start planning a recovery. But for convention planners, rescheduling their event at the Morial center may be a dicey proposition.
The city is mostly underwater, and ruptured levees have yet to be repaired. Roofs, walls and household goods are scattered or floating everywhere. Residents are being evacuated. The airport is closed to commercial traffic, and food and drinking water are scarce.
Worse for planners, there is no clear timetable for recovering from the disaster.
The French Quarter and the city’s other “tourism infrastructure” are important in attracting conventions and general business and tourism travel to New Orleans, said industry consultant Bruce Baltin at PKF Consulting Corp.
“If Bourbon Street is badly damaged, it will take a long time for tourism to return to normal levels,” he said.
Local tourism officials find it hard to concentrate on such issues.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” said Hyatt Hood, executive director of the nonprofit Louisiana Travel Promotion Assn. “We’re so involved in the day-to-day efforts to bring us back to some level of sanity, getting electricity and water and things more important than business.”
But he’s optimistic about the long-term future of the state’s convention and tourism industry, which brings in more than $9 billion a year, half of it generated by New Orleans. Meeting planners agree, but the uncertainty over the next six months to a year is giving them second thoughts.
“This is the issue a lot of people with events for at least the next six months have to deal with,” said Gregg H. Talley of event planner Talley Management Group Inc.
He said planners would have to figure out how long they could wait before making a decision.
“No one knows because we don’t know how long it will take to recover,” he said.
Brad Weaber, senior vice president at event planner Conferon Global Services, is working with about half a dozen smaller trade shows that are scheduled for New Orleans through mid-October and now must figure out what to do.
“At least two are looking at moving to another destination, and the others are meeting internally to work out their strategy,” he said. He would not disclose the groups’ names.
The logistics involved in rescheduling or relocating a convention are a nightmare, especially with the bigger groups.
After a decision is made to find another site, planners must canvass the country to look for an available convention center, hopefully in a similar time frame. If many foreign visitors are expected, visas issued for specific dates may no longer be valid.
Airlines and hotels have to agree to waive penalties and fees for changing reservations, and any entertainment has to be rescheduled. The new site also has to have plenty of local workers available to handle the crowd.
AARP had about 950 mostly New Orleans residents ready to meet next week to go over the work needed for its “Life@50+” convention, which was to feature actress Goldie Hawn and jazz musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Ellis Marsalis and his sons.
“The nature of our event was tied to the venue,” said Bruce Sanders, AARP’s member events director. “The whole program was a vacation and lifestyle opportunity, so that makes it difficult to take it someplace else. It’s also hard to rebook those entertainers.”
It also would have been difficult to sell the members on a new location.
Jan Robeson, 62, of Vienna, Va., and two friends were planning to attend their first AARP event because they wanted to go back to New Orleans, a city Robeson hadn’t visited in 13 years.
“I just love that city, the jazz and night life and the ambience of the city,” she said. She was looking forward to visiting such old haunts as Cafe du Monde and Preservation Hall. “It’s a very exciting place to go.”
But had AARP moved the convention to Orlando, Fla., one of the few cities that could handle as many as 25,000 conventioneers, she would have canceled. New Orleans was where they wanted to go.
Now she and her friends plan to donate the $489 they sent to AARP in April to the relief efforts and head for Catalina Island. They have the time off work scheduled and can’t change that.
For groups such as the National Business Aviation Assn., the annual convention isn’t designed as an entertainment event.
“People come for the new products, information sessions on new safety features and new technology, and it’s a sales opportunity,” spokesman Dan Hubbard said. “Our members keep this event in view all year and plan announcements and releases for it. It is critically important for us.”
But only a few sites nationwide can handle both the 30,000 members and the huge exhibits, including nearby airport space to exhibit more than a dozen new Gulfstreams, Cessnas and other business aircraft.
Hubbard isn’t sure what the group will be able to arrange.
“Now, people who want 1 million square feet of convention space will be in competition with us for the same spots,” he said.
Hubbard’s group has some experience with emergency planning. The 2001 meeting was scheduled in New Orleans for late September, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon halted air travel for exhibitors.
“We had a slew of logistical challenges, but we got it rescheduled in New Orleans for that December,” he said.
Small tours to the area are being canceled by travel agents nationwide. Martin Elson at Parker Tours in New York wasn’t waiting for customers to call him. He notified a group of 26 people that their 10-day tour through Biloxi, Miss., and New Orleans was canceled.
“We cater to mature travelers who tend to be skittish when something like this happens,” he Elson said, noting that people were relieved that the tour was canceled. “No one who was reached said, ‘I’m so sorry that you’re canceling the tour.’ ”
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Convention capitals
Top convention cities in North America ranked by number of trade shows in 2004
Las Vegas: 177
Toronto: 133
New York: 120
Chicago: 116
Orlando: 99
Atlanta: 98
New Orleans: 93
Washington: 81
Dallas: 80
San Diego: 70
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Source: Tradeshow Week
Los Angeles Times
